Microsoft made generally available its latest on-premises version of Skype for Business (Skype for Business Server 2015) — its unified communications platform and successor to Lync Server — available in mid-2015.

Several Ignite sessions seemingly will be dedicated to clarifying the relationship between Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business. Microsoft has been calling its Slack competitor, Teams, “the chat-based workspace in Office 365.” The original name of Teams was even “Skype Teams.”

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The company is adding an Auto Attendant feature, providing an automated answering and call routing; plus a Call Queues capability, which allows incoming calls to be routed to the next available live attendant in the order received.

The updated Skype client has a new look and feel, using more colors, gradients, bold type and “squiggles” (signs of activity). Incorporation of bots and add-ins are front and center in the new design. Users can add stickers, watch movie clips, and play games from inside the new client.